Review of Visits to Norway/Iceland/Greenland on Fall 2018 Cruise.

[GeorgeCharlie]

At all of the tender ports the ship always seemed to have hot chocolate and chicken soup available on the pier, which I'm sure was greatly appreciated by everybody that helped themselves to it - I know we did.

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

I wish HAL had provided hot chocolate in a lot of the "cold" ports we visited.  

[*Miss G*]

Phew.  I just did a marathon-read of your thread.  Great trip report!  (From all of you.) Thank you!

[2girlsonthecorner]

19 hours ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

At all of the tender ports the ship always seemed to have hot chocolate and chicken soup available on the pier, which I'm sure was greatly appreciated by everybody that helped themselves to it - I know we did.

 

 

Thank you for the review. I enjoyed reading and the pictures as we will be in some of the ports next year.

 

Penny 

[idiebabe]

20 hours ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

Hi Judith,

 

Yes, I'm sure you are correct as to when the notice came out. I don't remember much about it - seeing it didn't affect us, we disregarded the notice and quickly forgot about it. But, I do remember many people on the ship having lots of comments about it.

 

Bill

I don't remember when we received the notice either about Bklyn Terminal.  I agree with Judith that there wasn't enough Cabs and after waiting for about 15 minutes we contacted Lyft. Probably not a bad thing since it was only $33 to go pick up the Car Rental at LGA.  We found Debark in Brooklyn easy peasy compared to Debarking in NYC (which we have done numerous times over the years).  Our "adventures" continued because our Town had been under a Mandatory Evacuation starting three days before Debark due to Hurricane Florence and our flights had been cancelled. We didn't get home until Monday the 17th (an "adventure" in itself 😂). 

 

It's a shame the weather wasn't a bit better in Isafjordur.  We booked a private Walking Tour with Helga which was very good but definitely would have been more enjoyable without the cold, wet drizzle!  Interesting little "City"!   We, too, really enjoyed the Hot Chocolate at the Tender Ports.  The Zuidy took good care of us and such a nice touch!

 

Really enjoying your review and the great pics, Bill!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2018 by idiebabe

[GeorgeCharlie]

2 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

Phew.  I just did a marathon-read of your thread.  Great trip report!  (From all of you.) Thank you!

 

Thanks, but I'm not even half way thru the review - the "interesting" parts are still to come.

[*Miss G*]

3 hours ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

 

Thanks, but I'm not even half way thru the review - the "interesting" parts are still to come.

 

Excellent news!

[TomBeckCruise]

On 11/9/2018 at 4:29 PM, GeorgeCharlie said:

Hi Judith,

 

Yes, I'm sure you are correct as to when the notice came out. I don't remember much about it - seeing it didn't affect us, we disregarded the notice and quickly forgot about it. But, I do remember many people on the ship having lots of comments about it.

 

Actually getting off in Halifax was a breeze (that is - after getting cleared by security). Security had some ship staff take our large suitcases to the terminal. There was no customs or immigration to go through, we just went to the taxi stand and waited until they got a van large enough to hold our luggage, and we were quickly off to the airport.

 

Bill

I'm glad you were able to get off in Halifax. Did you run into more security anywhere, airport?

We were going to fly home from St. John's two days before Halifax, and you know how that went. There are worse things than being on a cruise ship a extra four days. We had already been to Halifax two times before, and didn't look forward to this visit, but we had a great time. Probably our best visit of the three😁.

Edited November 11, 2018 by TomBeckCruise

[TomBeckCruise]

On 11/8/2018 at 6:53 AM, Turtles06 said:

Bill, we were on so many excursions on this incredible trip that I’d forgotten, till I saw your photo of our wonderful guide, Cristian, above (and my wife’s back in another photo), that we were on the same mini-bus for this one. 😀

 

Great review and photos 

 

Judith

We found Cristian to be an exceptional guide. Well trained and knowledgeable. And a nice person.

On 11/8/2018 at 6:06 PM, GeorgeCharlie said:

 

Oops - but I guess I did crave the carved trees, as I bought one!!

We also bought something. A Christmas ornament.

I could have spent a little more time there, but it was at the end of a long very full day, and most of us were tired. It was nice of the tour company and Cristian to extend the tour when they found out that the ship would not be leaving as scheduled.

[GeorgeCharlie]

38 minutes ago, TomBeckCruise said:

I'm glad you were able to get off in Halifax. Did you run into more security anywhere, airport?

We were going to fly home from St. John's two days before Halifax, and you know how that went. There are worse things than being on a cruise ship a extra four days. We had already been to Halifax two times before, and didn't look forward to this visit, but we had a great time. Probably our best visit of the three😁.

No problems with security, but we were travelling with Air Canada - which, of course, meant our flights wouldn't be on time!

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

We arrived in Reykjavik the morning of September 2nd for a scheduled two day stay.

 

We had tours booked with GeoIceland for both days. For the first day we went on their South Coast tour and on the second day it was their Golden Circle tour. The tours had been arranged through the CC Roll Call for this cruise.

 

We got to the meeting point early and were checked off the tour list by GeoIceland's representative. We were then told to wait in the gift shop and we'd be called once the busses were ready to load. We patiently waited for a while, but after about a half an hour and when we noticed busses were starting to leave, we went out to see what was happening. Apparently, GeoIceland had a number of 16 - 20 seat minibuses going out each day and they didn't really have any control over who was getting on which bus. People would go along the row of busses until they found one for the tour they were taking and just get on. When the bus was full, the driver would then leave. We ended up being on the last bus to leave - not pleased.

 

The next day we went straight to the busses and were able to leave on the first bus. It seems like sometimes it's better not to follow the instructions.

 

With all that said, for both days the driver/guides were excellent and we found both tours to be a great way to see the major attractions of South Iceland. Of course, so do hundreds of other tourists, so most every stop was much more crowded than what we experienced on the Akureyri day tour.

 

Over the past few years Iceland has seen significant growth in tourism. The following chart reflects visitors arriving by air from the top 10 countries and does not include cruise ship passengers.

 

Rank	Country	2015	2016	2017
1	United States	242,805	415,287	576,403
2	United Kingdom	241,024	316,395	322,543
3	Germany	103,384	132,789	155,813
4	Canada	46,654	83,144	103,026
5	France	65,822	85,221	100,374
6	China	47,643	66,781	86,003
7	Poland	27,079	39,613	66,299
8	Spain	27,166	39,183	57,971
9	Sweden	43,096	54,515	56,229
10	Denmark	49,225	49,951	53,240
	Total foreign	1,261,938	1,767,726	2,195,271

 

With a population of only about 350,000 and tourists now exceeding 2 million per year - a person can understand why parts of Iceland is now losing its laidback atmosphere.

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by GeorgeCharlie

[Krazy Kruizers]

Yes, it is true that Iceland is becoming a tourist stop for land and cruise ship people.

 

We watch some quiz shows and we have noticed that some of the prizes are 6 nights to Iceland.

[GeorgeCharlie]

Our first stop was at a site highlighting the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, which is remembered by most of us for the enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe over six days in April/May 2010.

 

Our guide beside one of the information boards.

 

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

From there we went to Skogafoss falls. It is situated on the Skoga river at the cliffs of the former coastline, which is some 5 km (3.1 miles) from the current coastline.

 

The Skogafoss is one of the biggest waterfalls in the country with a width of 25 metres (82 feet) and a drop of 60 metres (197 feet.

 

The waterfall was the location for the filming of the Marvel Studios film Thor: The Dark World, as well as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 

 

 

There is a stairways leading to a viewing platform at the top.

 

 

Due to the amount of spray produced, at least one rainbow is present any time the sun emerges.

 

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

Next was a visit to the Dyrholaey lighthouse located on the cliffs of a small peninsula, but is a former island.

 

 

This location was a good location for viewing some noted sights.

 

The nearby sea arches.

 

The long black sand beach stretching to the west. 

 

And east to the more famous black sand beach, which we visited later.

[GeorgeCharlie]

The lighthouse has yet to be developed into a major tourist stop - as a result, other than an area by the lighthouse, the rest of the cliff does not have any barriers.

 

 

 

Not really a place to test out your vertigo limits!

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

We stopped in the village of Vik for lunch. Vik is the southern most village in Iceland and is about 180 km (110 miles) from Reykjavik. It was also our turnaround point for the tour. 

 

The small shopping centre we stopped at included an Icewear Wool Shop, along with a couple of eating areas, a grocery store, large restrooms, and, of course, a souvenir shop. 

 

 

Noticed another bus parked beside ours, which was made for more serious off-roading.

 

A view over part of Vik towards the Reynisdrangar basalt sea stacks, which according to one legend - ordinated when two trolls dragged a three-masted ship to land unsuccessfully and when daylight broke they became needles of rock.

 

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

Our first stop on the way back to Reykjavik was at the nearby Reynisfjara black sand beach. This beach was once voted the best non-tropical beach in the world.  Needless to say - it's become a much visited place.

 

But, it doesn't come without it's danger. Over the years numerous people have been pulled out to the sea by sneaker waves and died.

 

Our guide made special note of this danger before we exited the bus.

 

One of the signs at the entry to the beach.

 

The waves were not very high the day we were there, but the danger remained. There is no major landmass between the southside of Iceland and the Antarctic, so the potential for rogue waves to be produced is very high - even on nice quiet days.

 

 

 

As I was researching this beach on the internet I came across an article from just a few days ago - highlighting the danger. 

 

https://icelandmag.is/article/yet-again-travelers-grave-danger-reynisfjara-black-sand-beach

 

While we were there, our guide almost had a heart attack when he saw a couple place their small child at the edge of the incoming waves and then walk some distance away in order to take some pictures of the child playing in the surf. Fortunately, our guide was able to rush over and grab the child before it got swept over by the next wave. He gave the couple supreme sh*t and tried to explain to them how stupid they were - but they seemed more upset because he ruined their picture taking.  

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

Most of us were interested in seeing some puffins and our guide said he had seen some when he was here a few days ago.

 

We did finally see some, but they are small and very fast - so we were not able to get any decent pictures. Some others on our bus who had better cameras were lucky and able to get some good pictures

 

This area is noted for it's basalt columns and also features a large cave.

 

 

Our guide did not recommend going into the cave because it was common for parts of the rock ceiling to fall.

 

As you can see in my pictures above, that when we first arrived, there was that many people around. But soon, several large busses arrived and we had people crawling all over everything.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by GeorgeCharlie

[GeorgeCharlie]

The Solheimajokull glacier was our next stop. Solheimajokull is an outlet glacier of the mighty icecap of Myrdalsjokull. It is one of the most easily accessible glaciers on the South Coast of Iceland.

 

From the bus parking area, it is about 1 km hike into the glacier. Some people wanted to first use the facilities, so our guide said he would wait for them and the rest of us could walk in to the first warning sign.

 

At the first warning sign he gave a brief talk on the glacier, before we proceeded down to the glacier.

 

 

View towards the glacier from the first warning sign. These people are a group which will be taking a guided trip out on the glacier.

 

 

This is a picture looking back towards the first warning sign, which is on the ridge where all the people are standing in the upper part of the photo.

 

 

People who are used to seeing glaciers in most other parts of the world (especially in Alaska) are surprised how dirty the glaciers in Iceland look. This is because of all the volcanic ash which has deposited on them as they were being formed.

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by GeorgeCharlie

[GeorgeCharlie]

At the glacier face there was a second warning sign. As we were not equipped with the safety gear necessary to go out on the glacier - this was as far as we went.

 

 

Even with all the warnings, there were still people going out on the glacier on their own and without any safety equipment.

 

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

A short video clip showing the meltwater flowing out from under the glacier.

 

 

 

 

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

Some further comments regarding going out on the glacier without a guide.

 

Hidden crevasses and ice caves, slippery surfaces, and the threat of rock- or ice-falls all pose dangers on glacier hikes, but glacier guides have to pass several training courses to deal with these eventualities, making the activity quite safe for those in a fit state of health.

All guests are equipped with helmets, ice axes, and crampons, and should arrive wearing warm clothes and sturdy hiking boots.

It is forbidden to ascend glaciers without the correct equipment or training, for your safety and the safety of others. There have been injuries and deaths on Sólheimajökull before, and glacier guides have had to risk their lives to rescue those who flouted the rules.

[puppycanducruise]

Fascinating pictures and comments.

Thanks.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I appreciate all the time you are putting into your detailed reports.  Very informative for future cruisers.

 

Wonderful pictures and videos.